Mitt Romney’s Former Aides Are Not Happy About Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’

In the political realm, HBO’s The Newsroom is no more popular than it is among many television critics. Conservatives dislike The Newsroom because it depicts a smug liberal fantasy in which the liberals are actually winning, while liberals don’t like The Newsroom because it apparently depicts them just as the conservatives want them depicted: As smug, condescending know-it-alls who aren’t as smart as they thinks they are. People from both sides of the aisle love to hate this show, and it’s a wonder that the damn thing gets any viewers, but for the fact that many people who don’t give a sh*t about what critics or political pundits think actually seem to like it. At least bad old curmudgeon Dan Rather enjoys it, too.

However, we can add one more group to the hate pile: Romney aides.

Apparently, they’re not so happy with the way that the fictional Romney campaign is treating the fictional Newsroom reporter, Jim Harper, who is on a fictional Romney campaign bus with a fictional aide who, at first, wouldn’t let Jim Harper on the bus, and then later kicked Jim Harper and his fictional colleagues off the bus. In a fictional show. About fictional people. In a fictional universe. This quote from the Salt Lake Tribune, however, comes from a real Romney aide.

“You all would have heard about that if it had happened” in the real campaign, says Ryan Williams, a Romney campaign spokesman who traveled with the former Massachusetts governor. The show “doesn’t seem to be very close to the truth,” he adds.

If there was space, Williams says, legitimate news outlets — even those who were super-critical — were welcomed aboard the campaign’s press bus or on the campaign planes. At one point, some reporters covering Romney had to take a separate press plane but that was only because so many journalists were traveling with the Republican candidate, Williams notes.

It’s good to know that the real Romney campaign is still fighting the good fight against fictional opponents. You just keep chasing those windmills, fellas. One day, you’ll lasso one, take it home, and deprive that poor windmill of its reproductive rights and ability to marry windmills of the same sex.

Eh, it makes sense. Studies have shown that people will assume that fictional shows are fairly accurate representation of what would happen in real-world situations if said show deals with real-world events and not say Dragons. Granted, really only dumb people (or as Sorkin refers to them as, “Conservatives and Moderates”) would assume this, but it still would put people on edge when they feel like they are being attacked.

If what they’re saying is true then I think they make a decent point. Seems a bit hypocritical to use the accurate portrayal of very recent history as the conduit to tell your story only to modify that accurate portrayal of history, even if seemingly very minor, when it suits your purposes. At the end of the day it’s a reputational attack. If it was me and I felt it the portaryal was inaccurate and unfair I would be pissed too.

Of course no one kept any media off the bus in in real life. In real life, no newscaster called the Tea Party the American Taliban. This is the fallout from the fictional events happening in the Newsroom universe. Season 2 also creates the first fictional news event with Genoa. I think Sorkin has realized that with his characters interacting in such an important way with the world, it can’t remain as non-fiction-like as it was in season 1, because they’re going to be changing the world they live in.

I love that after an episode that brutally called out all the Republican candidates for standing silent as the debate crowd booed a gay soldier — something big that actually happened and actually involved Mitt Romney — his aide is miffed that the obviously fictional junior staffer who runs the press bus was portrayed in a poor light.

Otto – you’ve pointed out the classic parry which is a move that wingnuts love to use. Essentially, when confronted with evidence of something that’s totally fucked, turn the attention onto something salacious yet unrelated by drawing a quick, tenuous parallel. Works every time.

That episode also failed to mention that the Republican candidate who answered the question said that gay soldiers should not be kicked out of the military. And the crowd cheered that response.

And the episode also failed to mention that none of the candidates on that stage were in a position to do anything about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And it failed to mention that the person who was enforcing DADT is a Democrat.

But if McAvoy had acknowledged that, then he wouldn’t have been able to call Republicans “disgusting.” Or he might have been forced to acknowledge a legitimate criticism of Democrats. And this show can’t do that.

they have a “fictional” campaign based on an actual campagin, i assume since they use the actual candidates name, and someone from the actual campaign speaks up and says that’s not the way we did it? How dare he!

It seems that everyone is missing the point of this story arc. It has nothing to do with the romney aides, sorkin is insulting the news media who when mitt says “ive got a 5point plan” reported “mitt romney unvailed his 5 point plan today in MA” instead of saying “what it your five point plan?” and then we he says “its one the website or ive already said it or its putting ameircans back to work or i can tell you because my opponent will use it in a bad light, make me president and then ill tell you”, the media did not follow up with “I looked into it, there are no specifics, can you tell me specifics?”. that what sorkin is highlighting